A Story Idea
by chocoluvr
Summary: After burying her granddaughter, Augusta Longbottom is trying to get help for her twin brother Neville who is in critical condition at St. Mungo's with all magical means exhausted in treating him. She is going to Xenophillius to help in getting him treat


**Disclaimer**: I don't own Harry Potter

* * *

On a cold day in mid December an elderly witch entered St. Mungo's of course the staff knew who she had been a constant visitor there since the second week of November when both of her grandbabies had been brought in after being found abandoned in a dumpster at the back of Diagon Alley. When Magical Law Enforcement went to look for their parents they were nowhere to be seen and there were signs of a struggle in the house. After almost a month of being in a comatose state in St. Mungo's her granddaughter, Frances died as a result of the torture that she had experienced while Neville was still hanging on to life by a thread. The Healers at St. Mungo's had already told her that all that could be done right now was to wait and see if he would wake up. Augusta knew that her only hope was to see if muggle medicine would be able to help her grandson, though she did know that it was too late for her granddaughter. She was already frustrated with her applications for permission to use muggle medicine, even though all of the magical means to help her grandbabies was exhausted. She blamed the Ministry's prejudice against anything muggle for Frances's death and Neville's too if he didn't survive. She was hopeful that her application for Neville would be accepted, since she had already lost one grandbaby over this she didn't want to lose another one. As she entered the Healer's office when she saw his face, she knew that it wasn't good news. "I'm afraid that I have bad news, the Ministry denied your request to send Neville to a muggle doctor for care. I know that you wanted to send him over to the muggle doctors to see if there is anything that they can do but we can't approve it until the Ministry gives their approval," the Healer told her sounding sympathetic.

"Isn't there anything else that we can do other than just wait around waiting for him to die?" Augusta pleaded with the Healer.

"I'm sorry but we're doing everything in our power to get your grandson to wake up, but now its just a waiting game. We can't even transfer your grandson to a muggle facilty until we get permission from the Ministry," the Healer broke the bad news to Augusta who was thinking of a way to get the Ministry to reconsider their decision.

Augusta left the Healer's office knowing that she had one last chance in order to get her grandson the help that he needed, so she wound up in the office of the wizarding world's underground paper _The Quibbler_. When she got there she found the editor in his office going over the layout of the next issue alone. She knew that he used his little paper to tell the wizarding public the truth about the war; he even guessed that her own son and daughter in law were taken by Death Eaters who weren't happy about the disappearance of their leader.

"I know that you're very busy, but I have a story that you might be interested in running. The Ministry has denied my application several times to seek muggle help for my grandbabies and now one of them is dead and I'm scared that the other one will join her soon, if I don't at least look into muggle medicine," Augusta pleaded with Xenophillius who was taking notes about what she was telling him.

"Why do you think that the Ministry is doing this on purpose and not because they don't understand what muggle medicine could do for your grandson?"

"They have been told numerous times by the Healers at St. Mungo's that there's nothing that can be done for him. One of the Healers even told me about his muggle brother who practices muggle medicine and could be able to help my grandson."

"Can I have his name, so that I can check out his story, so that I can verify that there is nothing magical that can be done for your grandson and to verify that the Ministry won't let you explore other avenues of treatment for him, especially since he's the son of those two war heros who are presumed dead?"

"Its Ted Tonks, but please when you speak to him about this, don't let anyone else know where your source came from because I would hate to get such a nice young man in trouble."

"Don't worry, I never reveal my sources, especially if it could put them in trouble," Xenophillius reassured her. "That's good; he seems to be such a nice man I wouldn't want to put him in any danger, since I need his assistance in getting approval from the Ministry."

"Yes, and I'll do the best that I can to make sure that you get the best possible care for your grandson, even if it's a muggle method, and it sounds like every magical form of treatment has been exhausted with your grandson. I will love the chance to find out why your grandchildren were denied this treatment and if the Ministry did withhold this treatment from them on purpose then to expose that truth to the wizarding world."

"I know that you will do the right thing, in publishing the truth even though it can sound a little odd at times. I mean do you really believe that my son and his wife was taken by renegade Death Eaters?"

"I do, because that kidnapping is similar to the ones that have been committed by them before and besides I don't think that you have received a ransom note from them."

"Yes, but they weren't found in any of the previous locations where they had found previous Death Eater victims though they could of found a new place to hide them."

"Thank you for doing this for me, since I know that you always print the truth, without any Ministry influence."

"I know that many of our readers will love to read about the Ministry's prejudice hurting a child, instead of helping one."

"I don't care, I only want those who are in power to take notice of the poor treatment that they are providing my grandbaby because of their prejudice and how those bastards caused the death of my other grandbaby with their parents dead. If Neville even survives this, I'm going to be the one to break the news to him that his twin sister is dead and that his parents are probably dead."

"I can emphasize with you, I don't know what I would do if I lost either my wife or my little baby girl. I know that if anything ever happened to either of them that I would want the bastards who did it to pay for what they did."

"How soon would the story come out, when you do find out what's going on at the Ministry?" Augusta asked Xenophillius sounding interested.

"As soon as I can find the truth about what's going on at the Ministry, get the story written up and the next issue of _The Quibbler_ sent out."

"Hopefully it will come out in time so that my grandbaby can be helped."

Xenophillius did start investigating why such a young child would be denied muggle treatment from the Ministry, especially after magical treatment had failed him. He did find out that the Ministry's prejudice did affect the treatment of wizards and witches like Neville. When the story ran, the Ministry got so many angry responses from readers of _The Quibbler_ that in order to avoid a riot they agreed to grant permission for Augusta to seek medical treatment for Neville in the muggle world, which she did. After his medical treatment Neville made a full recovery, though he did have problems with his memory and coordination which the muggle doctor had told her that could have been a result of the attack on Neville. After Neville had made a complete recovery from the attack his parents were found alive, though they were found to be "insane" so they were sent to live out the rest of their lives in the Janus Thickey ward of St. Mungo's hospital. About nine years later Xenophillius wrote about the way that the patients on the Janus Thickey ward were being treated by the Healers because some of the large donors to St. Mungo's didn't want some of those patients to get better, and the Healers had the belief that those patients weren't going to be cured anyway. Though shortly after the article went out his wife was killed tragically in a horrible accident with one of the spells that she was experimenting with and his nine year old daughter Luna was also injured in the accident damaging her vocal cords where she would always talk in a dreamlike voice for the rest of her days, though some people whispered that someone had paid to kill her off and to make it look like an accident. This caused Xenophillius to change the format of _The Quibbler_ turning into a magazine that wrote seemingly unbelievable stories, since no one would harm his family over those stories until his daughter convinced him to report the truth again during the Second War. Augusta was able to repay Xenophillius for saving her grandson and trying to save her son and daughter and law by letting him and his daughter, Luna stay with them right after the second war while their house was being rebuilt after it blew up.


End file.
